Penn State running back commit Devyn Ford glides when he plays and seems to have a sixth sense where the running lanes are and how to get there. Ford is a dynamic athlete and a "prodigy," according to North Stafford (Va.) High School coach Joe Mangano, but that doesn't mean the game comes easy for him.

Ford has been so productive for so long at North Stafford, he's gotten used to the sacrifices that have to be made to compete at a high level. He arrived as an eighth grader at North Stafford and played some wide receiver as a freshman before being unleashed as the nation's No. 1 running back in the 2019 recruiting class, according to Rivals.

"You put in a lot of time, and you sacrifice time with friends to get an opportunity to have fun and perfect your craft and do different things," Ford said. "I've been training since eighth grade, so I'm kind of used to it now just how I use my time and divide it up and spend time with my friends and get the work I need to get in."

Ford's work continues to pay off.

He was a workhorse in every sense as a junior, rushing for 2,056 yards and 32 touchdowns. He showed the full arsenal of patience, speed, balance, power and vision to run around and through defenders. From Mangano's perspective, Ford is the complete package, both physically and mentally and on and off the field.

"It's natural," Mangano said. "I tell people he's like a prodigy. It just comes naturally. He can cut. He's got great vision. He's smart, which is great, but he just has great vision and great understanding of football. He's just explosive. His one-step pop explosion is something I don't think I've ever seen and will ever see again.

"He's a once in a generation player, in my opinion. The kid's got a 3.8 GPA. Perfect attendance in school until he took his first official visit. Three-time captain. He's just wired totally, totally different than any kid I've been around. He's got great physical ability, but is a natural leader. The way Saquon Barkley represented that program for a couple years, I believe Devyn will be the same type of person for that program."

To round out his skillset, Ford also shows natural hands that are now a must for running backs at the college and pro level. He has seen the trend, which Penn State highlighted by unleashing Saquon Barkley in every way imaginable, and says he's ready for the challenge.

"I learned a lot of things the past three years, just how to be versatile," Ford said. "You watch different players like Alvin Kamara coming out of Tennessee and you watch Saquon and different backs, the more versatile you are, the more function you'll be able to have later in life and even in college now.

"If you can pass block or you can run or you can catch balls out of the backfield, you can do it all, you get more opportunities and open more doors for yourself. Watching players do that and obviously me playing wide receiver my freshman year and then mainly starting to play more running back my sophomore and my junior year, I want the skill and ability to do it all."

Three seasons of Barkley's versatility and sensational play have helped Penn State solidify a true running back pipeline that Ford continued when he committed on May 18. Since the 2016 recruiting cycle, the Lions have landed the No. 1 back in the country three times in Miles Sanders (2016), Ricky Slade (2018) and Ford.

Even after losing Barkley, the future is as bright as ever.

Penn State lost position coach Charles Huff to Mississippi State and found a dynamic replacement in January in Ja'Juan Seider, a former Florida assistant with a long track record of recruiting success. Seider got a 1-on-1 meeting with Ford in February and helped move the needle in the Lions' direction when Ford took an official visit to campus for the Blue-White game.

Franklin, Seider and the staff made a big difference in Ford's recruitment, he said, but his reasons for picking the Lions over Virginia Tech were many.

"For the most part, it was just James Franklin and the coaching staff," Ford said. "Coach Franklin has put a lot of emphasis on a family-oriented program and making sure every person is cared for like his own son. I could really see that when I went up there on my official visit. It was really good to see all that.

"Also academics, they have a wide variety of majors, almost 160-plus, so you have a lot to choose from. People in Happy Valley are just really, really nice, and the alumni that come through that you have connections with and the fan base ... 107,000 is kind of crazy."

Ford still has another season of development before he enters the fray in Penn State's backfield. But once he does, Mangano sees an impact player who can make a huge jump at the next level.

"Penn State with their resources, I can only imagine what the next two years are going to look like for him," Mangano said. "He's just going to blow up. He's going to have a monster career, I believe."